Business Profile:
Blazing Photos: trail blazing in the Virgin Islands

BY CLAUDETTE JONES
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Marc Blazar was given a Brownie camera when he was six and, although no one realized it at the time, his destiny was firmly fixed. In 1980, bolstered by a couple of courses in photography while in college, Blazar turned an active hobby into "Blazing Photos," a successful business with four retail stores on St. Thomas, warehouses on St. Croix and St. Thomas and a staff of 25 to 30 people. It is a business that allows him to travel, camera in hand, to some of the most exciting and exotic countries in the world.

It all began when Blazar sailed into his new home of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, in 1977. He arrived from Newport, RI, on a 40-foot sail boat that he would use to operate a pretty successful charter business. During what he calls his "boating days" he met wife Marianne, who was also running charters.

Then in 1980, when the first of their two sons was born, Blazar knew he needed to do something more. He had read in Entrepreneur Magazine about one-hour photo processing equipment and wisely figured St. Thomas as great place to offer such a service. A major obstacle, however was financing. He had been approved for an SBA loan, but was required to match the loan amount. He reluctantly took on a partner.

Two years later he and his father who came in and worked with Marc until the elder Blazar passed on last January, bought the partner out.

Today there are three divisions of the business with a fourth about to begin. The first and mainstay of the company is the retail division represented by the four retail shops located on the waterfront (next to The Green House), Havensight Mall, Red Hook and Nisky Center.

The second is the wholesale division. Blazar is the exclusive distributor of Kodak products in the Virgin Islands, and maintains a warehouse on St. Thomas and one on St. Croix. Wholesale is an area that continues to grow, and he credits himself with the 99 percent saturation Kodak has reached in the Virgin islands.

The third is the photographic division which accounts for 25 percent of gross sales and also has a continuing growth pattern. The company has a staff of photographers and videographers who take aerial, commercial, and personal photographs and videos, including the approximately 600 weddings they shoot each year. Blazing Photos photographers have also worked with group functions at major hotels on island such as the former Grand Palazzo, Sugar Bay, and Renaissance.

Within the photographic division is found what is perhaps the most exciting area of their business - corporate incentive photography. Corporations like GE Capital hold contests each year to honor their best performing employees. The rewards often include very exotic trips with sometimes as many as 1,000 attendees. Blazar points out that they do incentive work for a number of corporations, but their largest by far is GE Capital.

With GE, Marc and Maryann who is also the company's financial officer - have traveled to Egypt, Africa, Italy, Singapore, Bali, Greece, Turkey and China. Working as a team, they usually arrive at the location a week or two prior to the group's arrival for location shots. Then, when the group arrives, the Blazars follow them daily, photographing their activities. At the end of the trip each person is presented with a portfolio of 20 to 30 beautiful photographs of themselves, their colleagues and the location. Next year, the company's incentive program will take them to Scandinavia and Russia.

GE Capital chose to work with Blazar after he showed them what he could do on their incentive trip to St. Thomas in 1990. The group stayed at Stouffers (now Renaissance Grand Beach Hotel) and used him as photographer. According to Blazar, at the end of the trip the company's CEO told him they had never had such high quality work, especially on-island, as that available at Blazing Photos. Blazar was asked if he would work with them on future incentive trips. "They could hire photography teams from anywhere in the world," Blazer proudly states, "but they selected our little group from St. Thomas."

The fourth and newest division of the company, slated to begin soon, is digital imaging. Blazar recently invested $100,000 in this new technology. He explained how it works: "With digital imaging, you can take an image, whether a photograph,. slide or negative (including damaged photographs), scan them into the computer. At the end of the process you output a new photograph complete with negative."

Blazar says that, ironically, each natural disaster has resulted in the company's growth. "Every time we've had a setback, like Hurricanes Hugo and Marilyn, it's forced us to be more creative and proactive concerning how we do business. Before Hugo, we only did one-hour photo processing. After the hurricane, we developed our affiliation with Kodak. After Marilyn, Blazar recognized a need for restorative work due to people’s losses in the storm – hence digital imaging.

Of the new technology and his involvement, Blazar says, "The industry is poised for a transformation with digital imaging. I've positioned Blazing Photos to be the market leader in the Virgin Islands. It's important that we're on the cutting edge of that, as well as any new technologies which may become available. It's important that we offer the best quality and customer service possible."

Blazar says he is very pleased that Blazing Photos has a team of people, all local, who have contributed to the company's success. He is away from St. Thomas for a couple of months each year, and credits the Blazing Photo family of employees with carrying the ball in his absence.

In Blazar's office and work area, there are countless, beautiful photographs from all over the world. In response to an inquiry whether there is an exhibit in his future, he admits to being asked about that possibility. Then, he seems to hedge by stating that much of his work is already on exhibit in Zorba's restaurant on Government Hill, where his pictures of Greece grace the walls, and in Alexander's Café in Frenchtown, where photographs of Austria abound. There was an Italian collection in Romano’s, he says, but Tony Romano liked them so much, he took them home.

At present, Blazar seems content with his role of leading Blazing Photos where it is destined to go.